Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Wednesday in Providence: Awards & Education

I’m just getting back in my hotel room after HBA Operations Manager Charlyce Ruth and I went to dinner with Crystal Harrington. Crystal is the Executive Officer at the HBA of Southwest Missouri (Joplin). Part of the value of this event is sharing information with peers, and I always enjoy getting together with Crystal. 

Day two of the annual Executive Officers Council Seminar of the National Association of Home Builders was filled with useful information and a couple of honors awarded to the HBA of Greater Springfield.

Charlyce and I split up today so we could cover more educational ground. I attended seminars on increasing the effectiveness of a local PAC, on ‘When to Lead and When to Follow,’ and on anticipating and fulfilling expectations and wishes of members even before they are expressly mentioned. 

Charlyce caught an excellent program from association law attorney Jeff Tennenbaum on legal issues pertinent to a 501(c)3. The content should help the HBA Charitable Foundation to excel. She also learned a new method for systematically evaluating association programs for effectiveness and their relevance to members.

The HBA of Greater Springfield also was honored with two Association Excellence Awards. The association’s Fiscal Strategy and Financial Plan for a Shifting Market received the AEA award in the category of Best Association Operations Program. This tool was developed by the budget committee as an accompanying document to the annual budget. It provides a roadmap for accurately forecasting those areas of the budget that are most and least likely to be affected by the shifting housing market. It anticipates which departments will be affected for the better or for the worse, and by how much. It also provides contingency financial plans for use in the event any projections and forecasts ever fall short.

We also received the AEA award for Best Communication to Members – Directories Published for the HBA membership directory. Our members are familiar with this product and have found it quite useful over the years. The most recent version of the award-winning directory is available to HBA members in the showroom of HBA Directory Distribution Sponsor Southern Materials Company

The rest of the Association Excellence Awards will be announced tomorrow (Thursday), so I hope to have more to report then. In the meantime, please know Charlyce and I are working hard to learn everything we can while we are here to help provide greater value to our members for their membership dollar. 

That’s all for now. More tomorrow.

- Matt

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